Brian Lord
Brian Lord (15 March 1934 - 19 January 2012) was a Canadian radio personality, who became perhaps best known for his time in San Bernadino, USA on KMEN in the 1960's. He was Southern California's first DJ to play The Beatles records on the air, well before they were even released in the USA. In 1963 he provided his impersonation of President John F. Kennedy to a song by Frank Zappa and Paul Buff called The Big Surfer. It was released by Capitol Records and recalled within a couple weeks. Links To Peel Lord was friends with Peel (who at that time was called John Ravencroft) whilst working at KMEN as a presenter and a program director. He wrote in the Radiowest forum in 2010 how he and Peel got in trouble which led them to being both sacked: John and I became friends, not tight personal buddies but certainly the 'beer after work' kind. My working day began around 9AM and finished about 9PM just when Ravencroft was ending his show and we took advantage of our common cause -- the radio station -- and got to know each other quite well. As the year rolled on the groups of young girls would usually show up at the station in the evening hours and ogle John. A young girl who has nothing better to do with her time than run over to some radio station and become groupies to the DJ's is a young girl who has too much time on her hands. Instead of doing homework, a small section of the local, female, teen society would always be hanging around asking questions, and.... well ....asking. John and I were a bit too old to get involved with this very dicey, unlawful way to pass time and besides we were both married although both of our marriages were on the skids. However, we all know there is an unwritten law among DJ's that activity bordering upon or involving in sex was strictly forbidden. Those who were smart never gave this group the time of day. Polite but quick like a fox, into their short and away from any scene. ''Ravencroft and I and a couple of other DJ's made the mistake of talking to the girls, telling them experiences and trying to answer a flood of pointless queries. In other words we were not very smart. We were circumspect to keep some distance but that didn't help a few of these young people from writing fantasy letters. One day the parents of one of our groupies read a letter written by another describing the relationship she had with John and Brian. It was rather intense. And it was damning. The parents went to the police, the police decided to investigate and made a visit to the station manager with a warning they might have to become involved if the parents decided to press any charges. John and I were toast... the manager booted our asses out of the station with an admonition never to darken K/Men's door. Ever again. And he furnished both John and I with airplane tickets ... John to London and I to Vancouver. http://www.radiowest.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=7053&p=12791235&hilit=ravencroft#p12791235 External Links * Radio History * Discogs * The Sun Columns Category:People